Description of the Related Art
The following systems are provided as a related information search system which searches for information related to a document to be formulated and presents it to the user in order to help him or her formulate the document.
(1) First conventional system
A first conventional system is one of the most widely used systems today. Upon receiving a search instruction from a user, the system searches for information related to a search key entered by the user and presents the related information to the user. FIG. 14 shows the block diagram.
In response to a user's search instruction, a related information search system 140 searches for information related to an entered search key and presents the searched information to the user. The system comprises a search instruction accepting module 145, a related information searching module 144, and a search result displaying module 146. An input device 141 is a pointing device such as a mouse or a keyboard, and a display unit 142 is a CRT display and so on. A related information storage device 143, a storage device such as a hard disk or a CD-ROM, contains a database in which text, documents/(translation) sample sentences, dictionary information, words, and Kanji samples etc. are stored. A search instruction accepting module 145 first displays on the display unit 142 the interaction elements (search button, dialog box, and so on) for accepting user's instructions and search keys and then accepts user's instructions and search keys from the input device 141 for transmission to the related information searching module 144. The related information searching module 144 searches the related information storage device 143 for information related to the search keys. This information includes text or (translation) sample sentences containing a search key and dictionary information containing a search key as the head word. A search result displaying module 146 displays the search result on the display unit 142.
(2) Second conventional system
A second conventional system is a related information search system disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Kokai JP-A No. Hei 7-134720 and Japanese Patent Publication Kokai JP-A No. Hei 9-69087. The system analyzes text entered by a user to formulate a document, automatically extracts a search key, searches for related information, and automatically presents the results to the user. FIG. 15 shows a block diagram.
A related information search system 150, which comprises an input analyzing module 155, a related information searching module 154, and a search result displaying module 156, automatically extracts search keys from entered text, searches for related information, and presents the result to the user. An input device 151, a display unit 152, and a related information storage device 153 are the same as those shown in FIG. 14. The input analyzing module 155 performs dictionary-based morphemic analysis or pre-defined keyword matching analysis on the text entered via the input device 151 to extract search keys such as characters or words and sends them to the related information searching module 154. The related information searching module 154 searches the related information storage device 153 for information related to the search keys. This information includes text or (translation) sample sentences containing a search key and dictionary information containing a search key as a head word. The search result displaying module 156 displays the search result on the display unit 152.
(3) Third conventional system
A third conventional system is a related information search system disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Kokai JP-A No. Hei 3-154152. This system, designed for use in a document formulating system with the kana-kanji translation (conversion) function, automatically searches for a sample of candidate kanji characters corresponding to the kana characters being entered. Rather than displaying the contents of the sample instantly, the system blinks or displays in reverse video to show the user merely the presence or absence of a sample of each candidate kanji character. Although a specific method for displaying the contents of a sample is not described in the publication, it is assumed that the user gives an instruction to display the contents of the sample.